GPS Route Question

[lehighsail]

I am not at my new to me boat and have a Chartplotter question. I am not too computer davy so simple answers would be appreciated if possible. On the boat is a Raymarine MFD with a micro SD slot. If I plot a route on my laptop at home, copy the file onto a MicroSD card, insert the card into the Raymarine E7 on the boat, can I transfer the route to the plotter and use it rather than entering all the waypoints by hand? If so, how exactly do I do it.

Thanks.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Do you have 2 cards, one at home and one on the boat? Unless the two cards are identical with data, you might lose something "in the translation" when you just move the route from the computer at home to the e7 on the boat. Better would be to use the card in the boat, bring it home, add the route and reinstall on the boat. Think of the cards as dumb storage devices. Whatever is NOT on the card at home but IS on the boat will be lost if you swap cards.

Do you have the manual?

IMHO, routes are highly overrated and can be dangerous unless extreme care is taken to determine that there is nothing in between two waypoints that the boat can hit, and most times skippers, in my experience, use too many intermediate points. And that's even before we get into the touchy subject of having the ap steer the route (like mobo guys do).

Good luck.

 

[Jackdaw]

What Stu said.

If you have a Navionics chart in your E7, you CAN do this, but it takes extra software, and a bit of computer 'savvyness'.

But in the end its never worth it... and that hard for me to say because I'm a geek and in the marine nav business. Sailing routes are almost NEVER that complex. And even if you think they are, but the time you get there on the water you end up doing something else anyway.

 

[Brian D]

There is a possibility that the E7 will write data in a file format that will not be understood by any other software package except the E7 (or other Raymarine products using the same file format). Based on the user manual (I downloaded to look at it) I did not see any function of importing data saved by another device. Only loading data saved by the parent unit.

Is it possible? Maybe, I don't have a E7 to check but maybe someone who has one will actually try it and confirm yea or nay.

 

[dparilla]

There is a public domain program called GPS Babel that can convert to and from just about any GPS format. I can use it to exchange Maptech data with Garmin and Navionics with a few simple mouse clicks.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Babel is very good.

However, the way I understood the OP's question was that he has an identical card at home that fits in his e7. I then extended that assumption (!) to figuring he had the Raymarine software at home to plan his route, although he did NOT say what software he did have.

Perhaps he can enlighten us.

 

[dparilla]

Good Point Stu.

 

[Brian D]

Stu, any microSD card should work. I don't think there is a special card that one must purchase from Raymarine. If so, then are they now also making memory cards?

I believe the real question is, is the card formated using standard hard drive formates (FAT, FAT32. or NTFS) or is it a proprietary format generic to Raymarine? Then, is the file format a TXT format or is it encrypted or in such a format that only the chartplotter can read?

I guess the best way to find out is to see if a regular PC can read the formated card, AND, look at the directory structure for the associated files and see if they can be read by other programs.

Apologies to the OP for the techni-garble. LOL

 

[Stu Jackson]

Brian, you're right. As long as the cards are the same, not an issue at all. Again, I'm making another assumption that the card he has at home fits his machine on the boat, right?

But as I read it, that's not his issue, see may previous post.

 

[Paul Mermelstein]

Gents, I don't want to insult anyone but I believe that there is a lot of conjecture on this thread without much hands-on knowledge about the e7 MFD and Raymarine's use of the micro-SD card. I have an e95 which uses the same cards and file structure.

The new Lighthouse II software allows files in both the .gpx and .fsh formats. The former file structure can be used by SOME PC-based nav programs, like Raymarine's Voyage Planner (http://raymarine.com/view/?id=3218). However, I find the easiest way to plan a route at home or elsewhere and transfer it to the MFD is via the tablet app from Navionics. Yes, you have to buy it. But it allows the iPad or other tablet to automatically sync with the MFD and transfer waypoints and routes, especially if the MFD also uses Navionics charts (which most Raymarine e-series MFDs do). Seamless and easy. Also a good backup system if fitted with a GPS receiver like BadElf.

An expert source of information is Raymarine's tech board, at http://raymarine.ning.com/forum.

 

[Bob 04 H260]

I use a Raymarine E120W on our boat. Raymarine advise not to use the map cards to save waypoints routes etc. use a second card just for that purpose. You could over write the charts and loose them. Also they are a bit picky about the brand of cards to use, I think they are still recommending to only use Sandisk cards in their products.

I use an inexpensive program from Raymarine called Voyage Planner to manage waypoints, routes, tracks and so on. It can read and write to a card or direct to the MFD if they are interfaced together.

I have the Raymarine interface to connect the laptop direct to the MFD. I just ran the cable from the helm to the nav station and have not got around to connecting it up yet. That will be much better than swapping out cards.

It is much faster, easier to input waypoints, change their names etc. on a computer than doing it on the MFD. And much less chance of making a mistake.

good luck, Bob

 

[lehighsail]

Thanks for all the advice. I will try most of the ideas and get the Sandisk product too. Last night at home I planned a route on SeaClear II. Sorry I left that out. Since I am new to this Plotter, the first thing I am going to do is look into Raymarine Voyage Planner and the Navionics program and work from there. Thanks again and will let you all know how it goes.